Posted on 03/30/2005 12:23:11 PM PST by jb6
MOSCOW, March 29 (RIA-Novosti) - According to Nikolai Bordyuzha, the secretary general of the Collective Security Council Organization (CSTO) including Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), CSTO leaders had the necessary levers to influence the situation in Kyrgyzstan ahead of the revolution, Izvestia reported.
Bordyuzha personally offered ousted President Askar Akayev consultations with CSTO representatives to prevent pillage and lawlessness in the country. The CSTO had no plans to keep Akayev in power to push a revolution. However, Akayev said that the situation was still within the norm and thought it premature to engage the CSTO.
"We can see the result - a revolution that, among other things, tastes like opium," Bordyuzha said.
The local administration office was already burning in Osh in southern Kyrgyzstan. Yet, Akayev believed he could solve the problem. He might have thought that if he had agreed to use the CSTO, it would have meant acknowledging his own weakness. However, he did consult the EU and the U.S. ambassadors.
"Perhaps, some of them were against assisting us," he said.
The masses were the driving force behind the democratic opposition's coup. The opposition included two forces, one of them participated in the presidential race last autumn, and the other, from Osh and from outside Bishkek, went to destroy the offices of the government agencies and loot local businesses.
But most alarming, Bordyuzha said, is what is happening in Osh where the presence of "the drug mafia is very strong". He believes that the Islamic terrorist organization, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, "is working hard" in the region.
Bordyuzha said coordinated efforts are needed to prevent the drug cartel's spread to CSTO countries, noting that Article 2 of the Collective Security Treaty provides for immediate consultations in case of escalation.
There are worse things than opium cultivation. For one thing, opium as a cash crop probably helped keep lots of Afghani farmers employed post Sept. 11 and out of the Taliban.
Yup, keeps lots of bureaucrats and prison guards employed in our war on drugs.
bump
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